1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floor plans.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Floor plans of existing buildings are made using distance measurement tools. These tools vary in complexity and precision. An example of a distance measurement tool is the tape measure, which requires manually extending a ruler between two points and reading the distance that aligns with the second point. Another example of a distance measurement tool is the laser distance meter, which sends a laser pulse in a narrow beam towards the object and measure the time taken by the pulse to be reflected off the target and returned to the device.
During the measuring phase, measurements are typically grouped by floor, by room, or by some other criteria that simplifies assigning them to floors, walls, doors, and windows on a floor plan. This grouping often yields partial floor plans, which then have to be assembled into a complete floor plan.
No matter how precise the measurements, many factors may prevent partial floor plans from fitting seamlessly together. For instance, one may read different measures when measuring a wall from one side and the other; room corner angles are seldom square in reality even though they were meant to be; wall thickness is not uniform, often hiding plumbing, wires, ventilation ducts, or structural elements not apparent to the eye; floors and ceilings are not always parallel, as is the case for opposing walls; construction materials compress and stretch over time, distorting building structure.
Floor plans were traditionally drawn by hand. They are now mostly drawn using specialized computer software. An example of specialized software is Visio, which allows drawing walls and adding furniture using a mouse and a computer running Windows. Another example of specialized software is Autocad, which allows creating detailed floor plans including of electrical wiring and plumbing layout. Specialized software typically requires that the user input measurements. It does not attempt to correct measurement errors, nor does it attempt to make various portions of a floor plan fit together.
When assembling multiple partial floor plans, users have to adjust measurements manually to prevent floor gaps and overlaps in order to ensure consistency of the overall plan. For instance, one may force almost-square angles into square angles, even out wall thickness, spread measurement errors over multiple walls or rooms, average out multiple measurements that should have been equal, or make substantially aligned walls perfectly parallel.
The changes made to partial floor plans in order to make them fit into a combined floor plan introduce local deformations to walls, doors, and windows. An alternate way to look at the problem at hand is to view these deformations as tensions that need to be relaxed. The greater the deformation and the higher the concentration of deformations in a given area of the floor plan, the greater the induced tension. Spreading a few local deformations over a large number of walls and over a greater area relaxes these tensions and improves the overall floor plan consistency.
Some drawing software packages offer tools that help during the drawing process, allowing user to snap points on a grid or align walls horizontally or vertically using a mouse.